Yale Earns 11th Straight NCAA Team Championship Bid

May 15, 2012

Championship Begins May 25 In West Windsor, N.J.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women's crew will see quite a few familiar faces at the 2012 NCAA Championship in two weeks. As expected, the Bulldogs received an at-large berth when the 16-team field was announced late Tuesday afternoon. Yale, which earned a team berth for the 11th straight year and has had at least one crew compete in each of the last 13 years, has already raced seven of the teams in the field this spring.

The three-day championship begins on May 25 in West Windsor, N.J. All of the teams in the field will field two boats of eight rowers and one boat of four rowers.

"We are excited to extend our season and eager to see how we stack up against the best teams in the country," said Yale head coach Will Porter. "It is never easy to make it to the NCAAs so we are honored to be selected."

Four other Ivy League schools – Harvard, Princeton, Cornell and Brown – were selected. Yale also faced Big Ten champion Michigan, Ohio State and Southern California this spring. The rest of the field is California, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Stanford, UCLA, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

The Bulldogs, ranked 10th in the latest CRCA-US Rowing national poll, finished third in the inaugural Ivy League Championship on Sunday. Yale's varsity eight placed fourth, while the second varsity eight and varsity four crews each won bronze medals.

Yale, which watched the on-line selection show at Gilder Boathouse after practice, is making its 12th overall appearance in the team championships. The Bulldogs' best finish came in 2004 when they were second. Yale has had one crew win a grand final four times. The varsity eight finished first in 2007, 2008 and 2010, and the second varsity won in 2009.